Story short, Starbucks' CEO, Kevin Johnson, recently announced the brand might use digital currency within a few years, to use on their mobile payment app, but the cryptocurrency will not be Bitcoin as Kevin doesn't see it as a currency today nor tomorrow. You can read the full story here:
Kevin Johnson also mentioned in his interview with CNBC that "One or a few legitimate" cryptocurrencies are coming, but that won't be bitcoin. Oh my my, did you hear that? One or a few! That means two things: Starbucks has its eyes on one strong digital currency and a few back-up plans. Now the $1 Million dollar question is: Which one(s) ?!!
Starbucks Coin? Nay.
Considering the brand, the logo, the marketing and their market presence, the firstthing that came to is wouldn't it be cool to have a Starbucks Coin, the name could be STAR or STBC, for example. Would you buy it? I would. That would make sense, since they have money and they could stay in control, somewhat, of what the images of the coin is on the internet and of its commercial value. Now they recently said the brand wouldn't have its own cryptocurrency, dang, seriously?? They don't want to go through the hassle of creating something that could fail and would rather use a very stable, already existing, currency. https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/910629/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-news-latest-Ripple-Ethereum-price-value-surge-starbucks-paymentEthereum? Don't think so.
For two reasons, Ethereum is already long way gone into cryptos and it is expensive. Among thousands of reasons that come to mind, if I were Starbucks, I would want a coin that helps the company facilitating payments and that is below or close to $1 USD per coin for easy of mind of the consumer/company shareholders. Trust me, when consumers need to pay a tall Pike Place ($1.85) with 0.00019 BTC, that makes calculation complicated. And I won't even tell you how to value the company goes with that. Headaches.OmiseGO? Maybe.
OmiseGo has a contract with McDonald's to process payments for them. Which makes it attractive because a "well-known brand" is using it, OmiseGO can bring reliability and stability to Starbucks but.. will Starbucks coffee mix well with McDonald's eater? That I am not sure how the mix will work out as these are two different markets, cheap hamburger versus expensive coffee.Stellar? Maybe, yes!
Stellar is a technology that enables money to move directly between people, companies and financial institutions easily, plus, Starbucks Chairman mentioned they already had a seed investment in it. Which makes it very likely to be on the top of the list if Stellar keeps its integrity over the next few months.NEO? Uhm Maybe, and here is why..
Starbucks has a long history of market entry in Asia, not that they didn't try, they just couldn't understand how the market works in China. In 2017, they launched several market researches to understand how to launch new stores and franchises in China. NEO, aka the "Chinese Ethereum", is a well known cryptocurrency in China that could actually open some doors to Asia for them. The future of NEO depends on tons of regulations and bans currently effective or under discussion in China, if everything goes for the best for NEO, I definitely see it on the top of the list for Starbucks.
https://www.thebalance.com/market-research-case-study-starbucks-entry-into-china-2296877
NEO's market cap: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/neo/
NEO highlights: https://coinsutra.com/neo-cryptocurrency/
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